In yet another example of the PAP Government’s double standards, Preeti and Subhas Nair were handed a 24 month conditional warning for their rap video, meaning they will be prosecuted if they reoffend during that period. At the same time the police said no offence had been committed by Dennis Chew’s “brownface” ad and neither did it breach the Internet Code of Practice.

At the same time the police warned that “”It will be the minority communities, specifically the Malay and Indian communities, who could suffer more in such a situation.”(if people are allowed to post similar videos). This reads like a not so subtle warning to minorities that they are there on sufferance and must tolerate racism and unequal treatment. If they call it out the repercussions for them will be severe.

How can it be offensive or inaccurate to say “No matter who we choose, the Chinese man win.” when Lee Hsien Loong and Heng Swee Keat have both said that Singaporeans are not ready for an Indian PM, when the boards of major Singapore companies (which are mostly majority owned by the Government) have much less than 25% minority representation, when Government scholarships go overwhelmingly to Chinese candidates and when the self-styled Father of the Nation has said innumerable times that Indians and Malays are of lower intelligence than Chinese and been allowed to get away with it? Yet when a member of the minority states what is de facto Government policy they are threatened with prosecution for offending the majority.

All the steps the Government has taken have reminded minority Singaporeans that, despite the promise in our Constitution of equal protection under the law, some are more equal than others. If the Government was serious about ending discrimination it would enact the equivalent of the UK Race Relations Act and Equality Act or the 1964 US Civil Rights Act. While the PAP by their actions show that they are not serious about tackling discrimination, indeed enshrine it as necessary to protect Chinese culture, Shanmugam’s words that the Nairs do not need to use “the language of resistance” in the United States because Singapore is in a “very different” situation are hypocritical and divorced from reality. Instead of addressing minorities’ legitimate grievances, Lee Hsien Loong feels compelled to shut up anyone who states the truth.

Published by kjeyaretnam

I'm a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That's why I've never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I'm quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don't work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I'm a liberal. I'm not sure what the middle think of me. I don't think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I'm a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I'm not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean. View all posts by kjeyaretnam